David B
@davidbiers.bsky.social
"no additional brain damage"
reading, brewing beer, gardening, technology and society, or whatever else
reading, brewing beer, gardening, technology and society, or whatever else
finding where a jigsaw puzzle piece goes by searching the big cover feels like succeeding at work which us why I've hidden the box this holiday you're welcome
January 1, 2026 at 8:13 PM
finding where a jigsaw puzzle piece goes by searching the big cover feels like succeeding at work which us why I've hidden the box this holiday you're welcome
1. be careful don't don't be stupid
2. actually let me try the stupid thing carefully
3. this is stupider than i thought
4. oops it worked
this is why women live longer than men
on the bright side I didn't need stitches and at least one of us (her) will learn from it
2. actually let me try the stupid thing carefully
3. this is stupider than i thought
4. oops it worked
this is why women live longer than men
on the bright side I didn't need stitches and at least one of us (her) will learn from it
December 28, 2025 at 6:48 PM
1. be careful don't don't be stupid
2. actually let me try the stupid thing carefully
3. this is stupider than i thought
4. oops it worked
this is why women live longer than men
on the bright side I didn't need stitches and at least one of us (her) will learn from it
2. actually let me try the stupid thing carefully
3. this is stupider than i thought
4. oops it worked
this is why women live longer than men
on the bright side I didn't need stitches and at least one of us (her) will learn from it
If you feed "How to Read a Book" into a chatbot and ask it to summarize and teach it to you Mortimer J. Alder will come haunt you to ask what it's like to optimize the books out of a bookful blockhead
December 18, 2025 at 3:55 PM
If you feed "How to Read a Book" into a chatbot and ask it to summarize and teach it to you Mortimer J. Alder will come haunt you to ask what it's like to optimize the books out of a bookful blockhead
posting as "conscious, semi-fictional reconstructions of the self, autobiography as work of art"
December 3, 2025 at 4:36 AM
posting as "conscious, semi-fictional reconstructions of the self, autobiography as work of art"
yeah man i read some words on wikipedia to make up that joke
November 13, 2025 at 2:48 PM
yeah man i read some words on wikipedia to make up that joke
things to look up for future woodworking projects:
those long low narrow workbench/sawbench things
what does the city mean with "sheds must be anchored"? sounds performative but maybe they want them tethered so the shred into smaller pieces before blowing across the neighborhood
those long low narrow workbench/sawbench things
what does the city mean with "sheds must be anchored"? sounds performative but maybe they want them tethered so the shred into smaller pieces before blowing across the neighborhood
November 3, 2025 at 3:57 PM
things to look up for future woodworking projects:
those long low narrow workbench/sawbench things
what does the city mean with "sheds must be anchored"? sounds performative but maybe they want them tethered so the shred into smaller pieces before blowing across the neighborhood
those long low narrow workbench/sawbench things
what does the city mean with "sheds must be anchored"? sounds performative but maybe they want them tethered so the shred into smaller pieces before blowing across the neighborhood
occasionally I get the urge to write a number type for python that uses strings to represent numbers and does all arithmetic in base 10 with arithmetic from pencil and paper algorithms just to see how slow it goes
October 29, 2025 at 10:50 PM
occasionally I get the urge to write a number type for python that uses strings to represent numbers and does all arithmetic in base 10 with arithmetic from pencil and paper algorithms just to see how slow it goes
strawberry is the filler of frozen berry mix
October 28, 2025 at 1:06 PM
strawberry is the filler of frozen berry mix
My kindle is lost INSIDE MY OWN HOUSE it's been a week and I still can't find it. I definitely had it Friday evening and it was gone Saturday evening, and I didn't bring it anywhere
October 26, 2025 at 12:28 AM
My kindle is lost INSIDE MY OWN HOUSE it's been a week and I still can't find it. I definitely had it Friday evening and it was gone Saturday evening, and I didn't bring it anywhere
"...the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else’s imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real!"
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton
October 25, 2025 at 12:11 AM
"...the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else’s imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real!"
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton
gonna start a cheap trick cover band add a little country sound to the power pop and call ourselves Cheap Truck
September 21, 2025 at 2:24 PM
gonna start a cheap trick cover band add a little country sound to the power pop and call ourselves Cheap Truck
nothing you say will convince me tmbg aren't mystics
They revamped the airport completely
Now it looks just like a nightclub
Everyone's excited and confused
Now it looks just like a nightclub
Everyone's excited and confused
August 26, 2025 at 5:59 PM
nothing you say will convince me tmbg aren't mystics
Today I'm gonna see how many pull ups I can do in one day. My gut feeling is 100 should be doable and 120 a difficult stretch goal
Gonna see how many pushups I can do in one day. My fur feeling last night was that 100 would be easy, 150-175 would be doable, 200+ might be out of reach
August 11, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Today I'm gonna see how many pull ups I can do in one day. My gut feeling is 100 should be doable and 120 a difficult stretch goal
rough week
mood up and down all over the place
remember the phrase dark night of the soul
find out the guy who came up with that idea was locked in a dark closet for months
laugh because this is mostly a few nights of bad sleep no biggie
mood up and down all over the place
remember the phrase dark night of the soul
find out the guy who came up with that idea was locked in a dark closet for months
laugh because this is mostly a few nights of bad sleep no biggie
August 7, 2025 at 12:15 AM
rough week
mood up and down all over the place
remember the phrase dark night of the soul
find out the guy who came up with that idea was locked in a dark closet for months
laugh because this is mostly a few nights of bad sleep no biggie
mood up and down all over the place
remember the phrase dark night of the soul
find out the guy who came up with that idea was locked in a dark closet for months
laugh because this is mostly a few nights of bad sleep no biggie
"Mindfulness of thought while oriented to God" is my seven word summary of the letters section
There are 2 versions of Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God on project Gutenberg. The less popular one is a stiff translation feels like <1900 to me but I can't find a date. The more popular one is from 2002 and reads like an edit of the same translation
August 5, 2025 at 10:20 PM
"Mindfulness of thought while oriented to God" is my seven word summary of the letters section
Been rereading this series (I read half of them as a kid) and it still hits the imagination and adventure button
August 5, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Been rereading this series (I read half of them as a kid) and it still hits the imagination and adventure button
There are 2 versions of Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God on project Gutenberg. The less popular one is a stiff translation feels like <1900 to me but I can't find a date. The more popular one is from 2002 and reads like an edit of the same translation
August 2, 2025 at 1:53 AM
There are 2 versions of Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God on project Gutenberg. The less popular one is a stiff translation feels like <1900 to me but I can't find a date. The more popular one is from 2002 and reads like an edit of the same translation
I think if I had a better sense of self/expressed more personality at the time I would have been into lesswrong/rationalist stuff. I came across it a few times in 2010-13 and remember liking it but was not really a participator
July 28, 2025 at 12:25 PM
I think if I had a better sense of self/expressed more personality at the time I would have been into lesswrong/rationalist stuff. I came across it a few times in 2010-13 and remember liking it but was not really a participator
Been a few days behind of the Borges🪞 group the whole time but I'm nearly caught up.
Ficciones had a running theme of authorship being flexible or illusory. So far the Aleph is about labyrinths and opposites being equal and all is illusory
Ficciones had a running theme of authorship being flexible or illusory. So far the Aleph is about labyrinths and opposites being equal and all is illusory
July 22, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Been a few days behind of the Borges🪞 group the whole time but I'm nearly caught up.
Ficciones had a running theme of authorship being flexible or illusory. So far the Aleph is about labyrinths and opposites being equal and all is illusory
Ficciones had a running theme of authorship being flexible or illusory. So far the Aleph is about labyrinths and opposites being equal and all is illusory
impermanence
permanence
this too shall pass
and never be the same
permanence
this too shall pass
and never be the same
July 14, 2025 at 8:14 PM
impermanence
permanence
this too shall pass
and never be the same
permanence
this too shall pass
and never be the same
There are some jarring register shifts in The Circular Ruins–"He also redid the right shoulder (which was perhaps defective)"
Sometimes these shifts are followed by Very Significant Lines 🪞
Sometimes these shifts are followed by Very Significant Lines 🪞
July 4, 2025 at 1:29 AM
There are some jarring register shifts in The Circular Ruins–"He also redid the right shoulder (which was perhaps defective)"
Sometimes these shifts are followed by Very Significant Lines 🪞
Sometimes these shifts are followed by Very Significant Lines 🪞
A closer tie between Pierre Menard and Tlön is reading authors in a deliberately alerted context🪞
July 3, 2025 at 4:52 PM
A closer tie between Pierre Menard and Tlön is reading authors in a deliberately alerted context🪞
There is also an element of influence from something that shouldn't influence in Pierre Menard, where the narrator finds Menard's style in chapters he didn't write, and expecting traces of his drafts the original/final text🪞
To me the part of the story that really jumped out is "They maintain that the operation of counting modifies the quantities and converts them from indefinite into definite sums." It's clear Borges is commenting on philosophical ideas that were bouncing around, but is he also echoing Heisenberg? 🪞
July 3, 2025 at 3:54 PM
There is also an element of influence from something that shouldn't influence in Pierre Menard, where the narrator finds Menard's style in chapters he didn't write, and expecting traces of his drafts the original/final text🪞
I'm not sure I'm following what Borges is saying about Tlön with his Berkeley/Hume paragraph🪞
July 1, 2025 at 7:50 PM
I'm not sure I'm following what Borges is saying about Tlön with his Berkeley/Hume paragraph🪞
Gonna see how many pushups I can do in one day. My fur feeling last night was that 100 would be easy, 150-175 would be doable, 200+ might be out of reach
June 23, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Gonna see how many pushups I can do in one day. My fur feeling last night was that 100 would be easy, 150-175 would be doable, 200+ might be out of reach